Expedition Audio RecommendedOne section of the service, The Funeral Sentences by Henry Purcell, are utterly heart-rending in the communion of sorrow and anguish, yet hope, that Purcell expresses. There may be no more profound a communication in all the history of Western Music. Through colorful, sometimes stinging dissonance, the chromatic measured motion of the voices, and the subtle, fleeting appearances of a major mode, Purcell paints an image that only love and loss could inspire. ... read more ...

This recording assembles the music composed for the funeral of Queen Mary, and that used at the funeral of Elizabeth I in 1603. The program is completed by Purcell' s sublime a cappella anthems and a moving anthem by Weelkes on the death of Thomas Morley. After the success of the recording of Schütz' s Musicalische Exequien, voted Record of the Year by Gramophone magazine, this disc will be one of the major events of spring 2013!